Australia has scrapped its proposal to send a shipload of stranded asylum-seekers to East Timor, a United Nations spokesman said Friday .
"The Australian government has ruled out East Timor as an option," the spokesman for the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor, Achmad Fawzi, said.
Australia had asked the UN, which administers East Timor, to allow the group -- which is stranded aboard a Norwegian freighter off Australia's Christmas Island -- to have their refugee claims processed in the territory -- DILI, East Timor (AFP)
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